Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider

He made his name as a jazz pianist, but Brad Mehldau—the first jazz artist to hold Carnegie Hall’s Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair—also writes music that is stunning and delicate. Highway Rider is his latest work; critics responding to the recording of this 11-piece suite released in January have heralded it as his most mature artistic statement to date. Hear Mehldau, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and guests bring this piece to life in Zankel Hall.

Performers

Brad Mehldau, Piano

Jeff Ballard, Percussion

Joshua Redman, Saxophone

Larry Grenadier, Bass

Matt Chamberlain, Percussion

The Saint Paul Chamber OrchestraScott Yoo, Conductor

Program

BRAD MEHLDAU Highway Rider (NY Premiere)

Program is approximately 2 hours, 40 minutes, including one intermission

Bios

Brad Mehldau

One of the most lyrical and intimate voices of contemporary jazz piano, Brad
Mehldau has forged a unique path, which embodies the essence of jazz exploration, classical
romanticism, and pop allure. His forays into melding musical idioms, in both trio (with
Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums) and solo settings, has seen brilliant
re-workings of songs by contemporary songwriters like The Beatles, Cole Porter, Radiohead,
Paul Simon, George Gershwin, and Nick Drake, alongside the ever expanding breadth of his
own significant catalog of original compositions.

In addition to his trio and solo projects, Mehldau has worked with a number of great jazz
musicians, including a rewarding gig with saxophonist Joshua Redman's band for two years;
recordings and concerts with Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, and Lee Konitz; and recording as a
sideman with Michael Brecker, Wayne Shorter, John Scofield, and Charles Lloyd. Mehldau also
has played on a number of recordings outside of the jazz idiom, like Willie Nelson's
Teatro and singer-songwriter Joe Henry's Scar. His music has appeared in
several movies, including Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut and Wim Wender's
The Million Dollar Hotel. He also composed an original soundtrack for the French
film Ma femme est une actrice.

Mehldau recently composed two new works commissioned by Carnegie Hall for voice and piano,
The Blue Estuaries and The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, which were
performed in the spring of 2005 with the acclaimed classical soprano Renée Fleming. These
songs were recorded with Ms. Fleming and released in 2006 on the Love Sublime
record; simultaneously, Nonesuch released an album of Mehldau's jazz compositions for trio
entitled House on Hill. A 2008 Carnegie Hall commission for a cycle of seven love
songs for Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, set to poems of Sara Teasdale,
premiered in 2009. In addition to their album Love Songs, a selection of French,
American, English, and Swedish songs they have performed together will be released in late
2010.

Mehldau was appointed curator of an annual four-concert jazz series at London's
prestigious Wigmore Hall during its 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons, with Mehldau appearing
in at least two of the four annual concerts.

Jeff Ballard grew up in Santa Cruz, California. He toured with Ray Charles from
1988-1990, at which point he moved to New York. Since then, he has played and recorded with
Lou Donaldson, Danilo Perez, Chick Corea, and Joshua Redman. As well as being a member of
the Brad Melhdau Trio, he is a co-leader of the collective group FLY (with Mark Turner,
Grenadier, and Jeff Ballard) and a member of the Joshua Redman Elastic Band.

Born in Berkeley, California, saxophonist Joshua Redman is the son of legendary
jazz musician Dewey Redman. After graduating from Harvard University, Joshua turned down an
acceptance to Yale Law School to pursue a career in music. Since then, he has recorded more
than a dozen critically acclaimed albums, earned multiple Grammy Award nominations, and
garnered top honors from DownBeat, JazzTimes, Rolling Stone, and
other publications. Redman has also toured and recorded with some of the world's most
distinguished musicians, including Brad Mehldau, Chick Corea, McCoy Tyner, Pat Metheny,
Paul Motian, and Brian Blade.

Larry Grenadier attended Stanford University, where he received a bachelor's
degree in English literature. After moving to the East Coast, he played with The Gary
Burton Band, touring the US and Europe. He moved to New York City and has since played with
Joe Henderson, Betty Carter, Pat Metheny, and the John Scofield Group. For the past year,
when not touring and recording with the Brad Mehldau Trio, Grenadier has toured and
recorded with the Pat Metheny Trio.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, now in its 52nd season, is the nation's only
full-time professional chamber orchestra and is widely regarded as one of the finest
chamber orchestras in the world. The 34 virtuoso musicians present more than 130 concerts
and education programs each year, and are renowned for their artistic excellence and
remarkable versatility of musical styles.

The SPCO is also recognized for its innovative approach to artistic leadership. In 2004,
the SPCO transferred broad artistic responsibilities from a music director to the SPCO
musicians and an intentionally diverse group of Artistic Partners-currently Italian
conductor Roberto Abbado, Dutch conductor Edo de Waart, American soprano Dawn Upshaw,
German pianist and conductor Christian Zacharias, and Austrian violinist and conductor
Thomas Zehetmair. Past Artistic Partners include pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, conductor
Douglas Boyd, violinist Joshua Bell, Baroque specialist Nicholas McGegan, and pianist and
composer Stephen Prutsman.

The SPCO makes its concerts accessible to the entire Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan
area through performances in seven neighborhood venues in addition to its home venue at
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in downtown St. Paul. In addition to increasing the
orchestra's accessibility through location, the SPCO has focused on making ticket prices
accessible. Tickets for SPCO concerts in all venues are only $10, $25, or $40, and
children's tickets are $5.

The SPCO is regularly heard on public radio's Performance Today, which reaches
1.1 million listeners each week on 242 stations, and SymphonyCast, which reaches
340,000 listeners each week on 124 stations nationwide. The SPCO has released 67
recordings, commissioned 127 new works, performed the world premiere of 49 additional
compositions, and earned 15 ASCAP awards for adventurous programming. The orchestra tours
nationally and internationally, including performances in premiere venues in Europe, Asia,
and South America. Launched in 1994, the SPCO's award-winning CONNECT education program
reaches more than 5,500 students annually in 16 Minneapolis and St. Paul public
schools.

Scott Yoo

After beginning his musical studies at age three, Scott Yoo performed
Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at age 12. He received
first prize in the 1988 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, was selected at
the 1989 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and received the 1994 Avery Fisher
Career Grant. After graduating with honors from Harvard University, Yoo founded the
Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, conducting the ensemble in its series at Jordan Hall in
Boston, and more than 90 performances on tour.

Yoo has collaborated with eminent artists such as Sarah Chang, Edgar Meyer, Benita
Valente, and Dawn Upshaw. He is currently Music Director and Principal Conductor of the
39-year old Festival Mozaic, which presents more than 30 orchestral, choral, and
chamber-music concerts and events each year on California's central coast.

As a guest conductor, Yoo has led the Colorado, Dallas, Indianapolis, San Francisco, and
Utah symphony orchestras. He has conducted the New World Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of
Chicago, and the orchestras of Columbus, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Kansas City, Louisville,
Winnipeg, Mexico City, Nashville, and Phoenix. In Europe, he has conducted the City of
London Sinfonia, Orchestre de Bretagne, Odense Symfoniorkester, and the Estonian National
Symphony Orchestra. He made his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in 2007 and his
debut with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo in 2009.

A proponent of the music of our time, Yoo has premiered 59 works by 30 composers. With
Metamorphosen, Yoo has recorded Mark O'Connor's American Seasons for Sony
Classical; John Harbison's chamber orchestra works with soprano Dawn Upshaw for Archetype;
and song cycles of Earl Kim with sopranos Benita Valente and Karol Bennett for New World,
named a 2001 Critics Choice by The New York Times. His recent recording projects
include the complete orchestral works of Earl Kim with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
of Ireland for Naxos and works of Mozart and Elliott Carter for Bridge Records.